FROM: Victoria Cobb, Executive Director [FamilyFoundation@familyfoundation.org]
DATE: Thursday, October 26, 2006
SUBJECT: New Jersey Court Forces Same-sex Marriage

Yesterday afternoon, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that same-sex unions are legal in the Garden State and wrote in its opinion that the New Jersey legislature must create such unions within the next six months.  This ruling comes just days before voters in eight states, including Virginia, will vote on Constitutional amendments to protect citizens from just such acts of judicial activism.

The ruling by just four unelected judges to completely change the nature of New Jersey law proves the point advocates of Virginia's proposed marriage amendment have made from day one: Protection of marriage only can be achieved by amending the Virginia Constitution, just as 20 other states have done with their Constitutions in recent years and as seven other states are prepared to do on November 7.

MAKE NO MISTAKE - and take it directly from the New Jersey justices themselves - state judges feel entitled to create new law, not interpret law, on their own and according to what they feel are current social trends.  Writing for the majority, Associate Justice Barry Albin ruled, "Only rights that are deeply rooted in the traditions, history, and conscience of the people are deemed to be fundamental. Although we cannot find that a fundamental right to same-sex marriage exists in this state, the unequal dispensation of rights and benefits to committed same-sex partners can no longer be tolerated under our State Constitution.''

There you have it: he freely admits the majority cannot find a same-sex right in the New Jersey Constitution, but by judicial fiat they are creating one!

Although opponents of Virginia's marriage amendment say it is not needed because no judge or judges here would ever rule in such a way in Virginia, the New Jersey decision - just as the infamous Massachusetts decision, and a Maryland decision, to name a few - demonstrates such a radical decision can happen at any time, on any judicial whim, in any state, including Virginia. Furthermore, opponents of the marriage amendment do not deny that their ultimate goal is to overturn Virginia's homosexual marriage ban one day, proving Constitutional protection is needed and justified.